liquid measurements

Citizen_Snips

When creating a custom food, is it possible to define servings in terms of liquid measurements (cup, fl oz, etc.) instead of grams? Cronometer allows me to create a Serving Size named "1 cup", but it still forces me to define that in terms of grams of the custom food in order to add additional serving sizes. If I'm adding a liquid, the nutrition label typically gives grams of fat, carbs and protein per cup or fl oz of liquid, meaning I would need to manually weigh the liquid to determine the number of grams if Cronometer is unable to allow me to specify servings in terms of liquid measurements.

Even better would be if Cronometer would automatically add a set of liquid measurements (cup, pint, tbsp, fl oz, etc.) after the user had specified nutrition data for one of them, as the relationship between these units is fixed.

Nat7

I've been wondering the same thing! I'm glad I'm not the only one. Sorry I don't have an answer but I want to hear one

Citizen_Snips

Here's an official response from Cronometer:

For branded and packaged foods, we always use the standard serving size given on the label of a packaged food product. In most cases, the serving size is in ml, with no gram weight specified for the volume, which does not allow us to put in more than one serving size.

You can make a copy of an existing food on the website by:

1) Go to the Foods tab
2) Select the Search Foods sub-tab
3) Search for the food and select it, this will open the food editor.
4) Select the gear icon in the top right-hand corner and select Edit a Copy to save your copy where you can add in a serving size.

Unfortunately, we require weights for all food items in our system. If there is no weight specified, there will not be an option to add another serving size. If you have a kitchen scale you can determine the gram weight of a tablespoon, and then add in the weight. Once a weight has been added, you'll have the option to add additional serving sizes, such as teaspoon. If you don't care about perfect accuracy for your item, most liquids are close to 1ml=1g as a decent estimate.

We also recommend sticking to generic alternatives sourced from the USDA or the NCCDB, as they often have convenient serving sizes such as cups, tsp, etc.

It seems there is something fundamental about the way their system is setup that dry measurements must always be used. It's annoying but I guess there's technically a workaround.

robartsd

If you're going to use fairly large quantities of something in recipes, I recommend carefully measuring and weighing a specific volume to find the density and enter it appropriately. For things I don't use frequently and never in large quantity, I might just enter as 1 ml = 1 g (the density of pure water). Water based liquid foods will be a bit higher depending on the dissolved solids they contain (ocean water is about 1.03 g/ml). Syrups might be as high as 1.40 g/ml while beverages fall in the range 1.00-1.05 g/ml. Cooking oils tend to be about 0.92 g/ml.

Densities of many common foods can be found in this report (pdf) from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

I agree that it would be nice if Chronometer provided convenient conversion between volumetric measures.

pdrier

if Cronometer was smarter, they'd ask if the item was a liquid or a solid, and allow liquids to have ML & FL oz based measurements. (in addition to grams)

It's not that hard to give the user a more realistic user experience.